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"No Penalties for CAFE Violations

Because this is a reconciliation bill, Congress could not make changes to vehicle emissions and fuel economy laws. Rather than replace or abolish the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program (CAFE), this bill keeps all the existing rules in place but reduces the penalties for breaking them to $0.00. This means automakers are free to ignore federal fuel economy regulations as the EPA cannot meaningfully enforce them.

This could potentially affect consumers in multiple ways. If automakers stop following CAFE rules, fuel economy could go down and emissions could go up. Any savings on R&D could then be passed on to the consumer. This is unlikely, however. Automakers plan as much as a decade in advance, so vehicles for sale today were engineered years ago and the money already spent. Future iterations of Congress and future presidents could also reinstate the penalties in a few years, which would wipe out any savings and put automakers behind on R&D. Fuel economy regulations elsewhere in the world aren’t changing, so there’s little incentive for automakers to cut R&D spending regardless, meaning no reduction in pricing is likely."

https://www.motortrend.com/news/how-the-one-big-beautiful-bill-will-affect-car-buying-and-ownership

I would've financed a bit if the rate had been 0% but since it wasn't, and I had the cash in a separate savings account, just charged half and wrote a check for the remainder. Just checked, the money has hit my checking account but they haven't cashed the check yet. The charged portion hit my card on Saturday and still have some time to pay it off. But it will be nice to get 2% of what I charged since I always take the cash rewards with my c c's.
Still hard to believe I finally pulled the trigger. It's something I've agonized over for a long time but I just wanted what I wanted with no remorse. And that's exactly what has happened! Loving the push button start/off button and not having to touch the key fob. Ever since I had that tranny problem back in 2022, the key would get stuck in the ignition without warning more & more. At first I'd just restart the car and hope it came out. After a bit, I just put my foot on the brake, went from "P" to "D" and back to "P", and after a few tries, it would eventually come out. Tried using DW-40 a few times on the key hoping that would help. Last Tuesday after work, the key got stuck again, this time for about 4 minutes or so. Got pretty hot and I got real frustrated! At that moment, seem to remember telling myself that the time had come and tomorrow, last Wednesday, was time to go check out my grey GTI. And the rest...as they say, is history! And a week later, do not regret the decision one bit!!!